The present invention relates to a method for obtaining an adaptive selection of sets of data stored in a mass memory. The method makes use of administration information related to the sets of data and allows to obtain a classified list of sets of data. The present invention also relates to a device for obtaining an adaptive selection of sets of data stored in a mass memory.
A mass memory is a memory which allows to store relatively large quantities of data. A mass memory may concretely be embodied in various forms, notably in form of semi-conductor circuits, holographic memories (memory with linear, surface or volume density), magnetic carriers or also so called optical carriers, rewritable or not.
The capacities of mass memories, i.e. the quantity of the storable data amount, haven""t ceased to increase in the last years, due among other reasons to the miniaturization of the semi-conductor circuits or also to the increasing density of information storable on various carrier. The increasing of the memory capacities has brought to a user of these memories the problem of administrating and of accessing to the numerous data contained in these memories. Therefore a mass memory in form of an optical disk may contain numerous data grouped in sets, for example songs to which a user will in a normal case access in a sequential order. The user activates a function  less than  less than read greater than  greater than  of an optical disk reader which accesses the songs and reproduces them in a predetermined order which will generally be a fixed order contained in a directory. Thus the user listens and listens again to the songs in the same order every time he activates the function  less than  less than read greater than  greater than .
In a case where the user chooses not wanting to listen for example to the first song, he manually selects to access any other song contained in the directory by activating once or many times a function  less than  less than next song greater than  greater than . The users may have to listen to the beginning of a plurality of songs before finding a wanted song and also for every new song to be listened.
Some selection devices allow a user to select in advance but in a fixed manner a list of songs prior to each listening session. These devices are commonly known as programming devices.
The selection of the songs may become a laborious and long task when the memory contains a large number of songs, for example 1.000 songs.
The present invention suggests to overcome the difficulty of selecting sets of data in mass memories which have relatively large capacities. More precisely the difficulty lies in the number of the user""s interventions which increases with the number of sets of data and as a consequence in the time which the user spends to select these sets of data. Furthermore the user needs to know the approximate or precise nature of the set of data which he wants to select, this becoming difficult or even impossible when the number of these sets increases in a mass memory.
A solution to the described difficulty of selecting is according to the present invention found in a method for obtaining an adaptive selection of sets of data contained in a mass memory. The method comprises the steps of modifying administration information of a set of data at least when this set is modified, erased or read, storing the modified administration information in an administration memory, evaluating at least a part of the administration information according to predetermined criteria and obtaining an adaptive selection of the corresponding sets of data.
The method for obtaining an adaptive selection allows to take in account habits of accessing to sets of data by a user and/or temporary preferences of this user in order to perform in an automatic manner a selection of these sets of data. Therefore when the sets of data are songs or movie sequences, the adaptive selection allows to recall an ambiance by initiating specific emotions of the user.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the method for obtaining an adaptive selection further foresees to modify new administration information of a new set of data contained in a temporary memory distinct from the mass memory at least when this new set is modified, erased or read. The new modified information is stored in the administration memory and evaluated according to a predetermined criteria of interest for obtaining an actual selection of the corresponding new sets of data. The new sets of data of the actual selection are transferred from the temporary memory to the mass memory.
When a user of sets of data receives a large number of new sets of data, these are not immediately stored in the mass memory. The method allows to keep among the new sets only those to which the user accesses according to predetermined criteria of interest before copying the selected new sets in the mass memory.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the method for obtaining an adaptive selection comprises a step of classifying the sets of data of the adaptive selection in a predetermined hierarchical order such to obtain a classified list of these sets.
The predetermined hierarchy may for example be related to the number of times a user will have accessed to each set of data in a precise period of time.
Another problem which the present invention suggests to overcome is the improvement of the arrangement of the sets of data in the mass memory. The arrangement notably plays a role when the sets of data are sequentially stored and when certain sets of data are used more importantly than others.
As a solution to the other problem, the present invention is a method of arranging sets of data in which the sets of data contained in a mass memory are sequentially arranged and comprising the steps of obtaining a classified list of at least a part of the sets of data through a method for obtaining an adaptive selection and sequentially arranging in the mass memory the sets of the classified list according to the predetermined hierarchical order.
A solution to the described difficulty of selecting may according to the present invention also be seen in a device for an adaptive selection to select sets of data contained in a mass memory, the mass memory being at least readable using a first reading device. The device comprises at least a rewritable administration memory which contains information to administrate the sets of data. The device further comprises means for modifying the administration information of a set of data at least when this set is modified, erased or read, means for storing modified administration information in the administration memory, evaluating means for evaluating administration information according to one or many predetermined criteria and memorizing means for memorizing an adaptive selection of sets of data obtained using the evaluation means.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the device comprises a temporary memory containing new sets of data, means for reading the new sets of data in the temporary memory, means for modifying new administration information of a new set at least when this new set is modified, erased or read, means for storing the modified new administration information in the administration memory, evaluating means for evaluating new administration information according to one or many predetermined criteria of interest in order to obtain an actual selection of new sets of data and transfer means for copying new sets of data out of the actual selection from the temporary memory into the mass memory.
At first the new sets of data are stored in a temporary manner. Next and depending on the interest which a user has for some of these new sets, these new sets are selected and copied in the mass memory. This way the mass memory isn""t cluttered with sets of data which are of no interest for the user.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the mass memory, the temporary memory and the administration memory are on a same information carrier.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the mass memory is on a sequential information carrier on which the sets of data are laid out sequentially.
The sequential information carrier may for example be a magnetic tape.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the device for an adaptive selection comprises means for selecting one or many predetermined criteria.
The predetermined criteria may be of different kinds. A user chooses the appropriate criteria according to the circumstances of his environment.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the device for an adaptive selection comprises a plurality of administration memories and means to choose one of these administration memories in a way such that the means for modifying, the means for storing and the evaluating means act on the administration information of the chosen administration memory.
The device for selecting allows in this way for a plurality of users to use sets of data contained in a same mass memory, each using its own administration memory.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the device for selecting comprises means to form into a hierarchy administration information of the sets of data contained in the adaptive selection in order to obtain a classified list of these sets.
As a solution to the other described problem the present invention proposes a device for arranging sets of data having means for arranging the sets of data sequentially on the sequential information carrier. The device for arranging comprises a device for an adaptive selection, a reorganization memory distinct from the mass memory, means for copying data from the mass memory into the reorganization memory and the other way round and means for arranging sets of data on the information carrier in a sequential order corresponding to an order of the sets of data in the classified list.
The device for selecting and the device for arranging may each be included in a player/recorder of the mass memory in order to ease the access to sets of data contained in a mass memory for a user.